Impacts of the REACH candidate list of substances subject to authorisation:the reputation mechanism and empirical results on behavioral adaptations of German supply chain actors

The candidate list of substances subject to authorisation is an instrument provided by the EU chemicals regulation (REACH) to publicly  announce and prioritize chemical substances of very high concern (SVHC) as a first step of imposing an obligation of authorisation on them, i.e. including them into the authorisation list (Annex XIV of REACH). As a consequence of inclusion into the “candidate list”, a variety of obligations concerned with intensifying risk communication apply. Article producers, importers and distributors of articles have to communicate information about SVHCs contained in articles and necessary risk management measures to the recipients of the articles and provide this information to consumers on request (Art. 33 REACH). This research paper analyzes the reputational mechanism of the candidate list showing a potential to stigmatize not only the substances as such but also various actors of the supply chain associated with these substances and their brands. Drawing on behavioral psychology theories, hypotheses on the reputational impacts of the candidate list on substance manufacturers, downstream users (including formulators and manufacturers of articles) and distributors are derived. These are discussed on the basis of current empirical data surveyed by the European Commission

Metabolic engineering of Corynebacterium glutamicum towards methanol-dependent growth

Hennig G. Metabolic engineering of Corynebacterium glutamicum towards methanol-dependent growth. Bielefeld: Universität Bielefeld; 2019

Processing of Dielectric Materials and Metals with ps Laserpulses

Since industrial suited ps laser systems are available, the cold ablation with ultrashort laser pulses is of huge interest when high requirements concerning accuracy, surface roughness and heat affected zone are demanded. Interesting applications lie within the fields of surface and 3-d structuring of metals, semiconductors (especially flexible solar cells) and dielectric materials with direct and induced processes. For a profitable industrial use of this technology high process efficiency is required which is confirmed by the development of the corresponding systems towards high average powers up to several 10 W. Beside the pulse duration, which is given by the laser system, the user has a wide variety of parameters, e.g. fluence, repetition rate, wavelength and marking speed, to optimize structuring processes. For a given average power there exist optimal laser parameters to achieve a maximal volume ablation rate. To take benefit of this maximum ablation rate, to simultaneously prevent harmful effects (particle shielding, surface melting) and to achieve the requirements concerning surface quality and accuracy, adapted structuring strategies have to be used. This can lead to equipment needs of the beam guiding system which are often not accomplishable and therefore to the demand for new technologies which have to be developed

Azithromycin inhibits IL-1 secretion and non-canonical inflammasome activation

Deregulation of inflammasome activation was recently identified to be involved in the pathogenesis of various inflammatory diseases. Although macrolide antibiotics display well described immunomodulatory properties, presumably involved in their clinical effects, their impact on inflammasome activation has not been investigated. We compared the influence of macrolides on cytokine induction in human monocytes. The role of intracellular azithromycin- accumulation was examined by interference with Ca++-dependent uptake. We have also analysed the signalling cascades involved in inflammasome activation, and substantiated the findings in a murine sepsis model. Azithromycin, but not clarithromycin or roxithromycin, specifically inhibited IL-1α and IL-1β secretion upon LPS stimulation. Interference with Ca++-dependent uptake abolished the cytokine-modulatory effect, suggesting a role of intracellular azithromycin accumulation in the modulatory role of this macrolide. Azithromycin’s inhibiting effects were observed upon LPS, but not upon flagellin, stimulation. Consistent with this observation, we found impaired induction of the LPS-sensing caspase-4 whereas NF-κB signalling was unaffected. Furthermore, azithromycin specifically affected IL-1β levels in a murine endotoxin sepsis model. We provide the first evidence of a differential impact of macrolides on the inflammasome/IL-1β axis, which may be of relevance in inflammasome-driven diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or asthma